Samsung sells 50 millionth touchscreen phone. 40 million of them this year!

Every couple of months or so, Samsung is putting out a press release, to crow about one or other of it’s achievements in mobile phone biz. Most of them about something or other, related to their touchscreen phones.

They have a real good reason to do so. It seems that Samsung’s touchscreen handsets are flying off the shelves at an incredible pace. Samsung has just announced the sale of their 50 millionth touchscreen phone today. And 40 million of them were sold this year, while holiday season is yet to start in most of the world.

Sit down for a minute and think for a about these figures. 40 million devices in a year. 400% YoY growth for a single device category!

Is “full touchscreen” mobile phone category more artificial, or less important, then the recently invented “smartphone” category? And how do Apple comps vs. Samsung look through the lens of “full touchscreen phones”?

Samsung has also confirmed that they will easily beat their earlier sales forecast of 200 million handsets for 2009.

Think about this figure too. My guess is, that mainstream media and U.S. market focused gadget blogs, with their narrow fixation on U.S. and/or smartphone market, are completely missing the real battle that is now starting in mobile handset industry.

Yes, iPhone was a revolution in handset UI design, energized and completely changed the dynamics of mobile app development, etc;. But they were and will always remain a niche market device.

The real battleground in mobile handset industry for the next few years is between Nokia and Samsung.

While I like to play with the latest gadgets, I am even more interested in broad technology trends. With mobile now taking over the world - following the latest technology news, looking for insights, sharing and discussing them with passionate audience - it's hard to imagine a better place for me to be. You can find me on Twitter as @UVStaska'